Isn’t he adorable? His leg is a little cockeyed but Dr Mark thinks it will recover completely and his leg looked really good.

As for Trooper, he’s making up for all the time he wore that cast and running and playing like crazy!

I told you yesterday that Jada and Winifred both got homes after two families had applied for Jada. Jada is a very busy, very active girl, who has shown that she really benefits from lots of exercise…more than an average human can provide ; o ). Soooo, we placed her in a family with a very busy male Australian Shepherd mix named Cash.  Success! See for yourself!

The other family has a mom that runs, so we placed Winifred, a very nice 95lb Black Lab who sat at the shelter for far too long, with them. She’ll get the exercise and love she needs there. Here’s Winifred and Winifred with her happy new family.

Woo hoo! Happy days, and two happy endings!

Last month we rescued a female Rottweiler who was in terrible condition. She was super thin, and missing much of the hair on her back. One of her ears had developed a condition from being untreated for ear infections and scratching until her ear developed a hematoma. The ear scarred down with scar tissue (the condition is referred to as  “cauliflower ear”). She was generally depressed. Her urine was brown and she clearly didn’t feel good. Even our vet was worried about her…

Overall, this poor girl, who was found running stray, was a classic example of neglect.

Raven, as she was named, went to a great foster home and on October 20th, we switched her to a grain free diet. We didn’t shampoo her with any special medicated shampoo’s, in fact we like to use a natural lavender shampoo, since after all, lavender kills bacteria, is calming, and smells good, too! A month later, voile! Take a look for yourselves, Raven looks like a million bucks!

All of her hair has grown back in and she clearly feels good. Initially, she was battling some separation anxiety, but her fosters worked with her and she calmed down as she started to feel more confident. The next good news came when her foster family decided they couldn’t part with her. So, they’ll be another foster failure, and they’ll adopt Raven as the new member of their family. Things could definitley be worse for Raven! Lucky girl…

Yep, this weekend we’ll be at the Beaverton Petsmart on Walker Rd and Cedar Hills Blvd from 11am to 4pm doing Santa pics with all the four leggeds. We have the best Santa, who even has a real beard! In the past ten years, our Santa has done pics with all kinds of dogs, cats, bunnies, turtles, iguana, and a sugar glider! Okay, and the occasional kids come visit Santa, too! We always have fun and we get some great pics. Petsmart charges $9.95 and donates half to Indigo Rescue. A few samples below. Hope you can make it down to join us!

These are so great! Shannon and Nicole took pics of the Alpacas, the goats and the dogs having fun in the snow!

They’re so cute and they love the snow!!

Berkeley and Betsy didn’t quite know what to think about snow. It’s not exactly in their nature…

Duke and Jess in the snow

Rocky runs and plays!!

Molly with a big smile!

I know! It’s terrible. There was so much going on between rescues, and we were getting ready for our 11th Annual Jewelry Sale Fundraiser, and we had to get our Year End Newsletter out, and we had the Sons of Armageddon fundraiser…whew! There wasn’t much time for sleeping in-between everything, let alone blogging.  I’ll try to do better on keeping up.
We finally got pics from the super fun Sons of Armageddon fundraising event at Wrenegades. I’ve included a few here. Hope more of you can come down to join us next year!

Wendy and her friend Chris

Wendy was awesome and put the whole event together, along with Travis from Sons of Armageddon…

Travis snuggled with 2.25lb Calamity Jane

We had to pry her from his protective arms…

Me and Calamity Jane

She was pretty pooped after everyone held her, and she didn’t even mind the awesome classic rock performed by Home by Dawn!

Tessa the Tattoo Winner

Her tattoo represents her grandparents. How cool is that??

Cathy and Joe

Adopters and supporters of Indigo Rescue! We’re so glad they came out to Gresham to have fun with us!

Claudia Donnie and Tessa

On Friday, I had a really nice conversation with Debbie Wood, the shelter manager at Washington County Animal Services. She was very excited to tell me how much the shelter had improved over the past few years, and their goals for the future are even more exciting.

That conversation prompted me to update all of you, as well. The current goal of the shelter is not to euthanize any healthy, adoptable animals, and they are well on their way. The number of animals they’ve had to euthanize has dropped dramatically over the past two years. Part of this is because we (Indigo Rescue) are able to take many of the animals who are deemed unhealthy during their evaluation. Sometimes this is because they are injured, or sick, but sometimes it’s because they are not able to emotionally handle the shelter environment.

The shelter staff are all working so hard to find ways to make sure no ‘healthy’ animals are euthanized. Their job is a difficult one. They have to battle staggering statistics. People still fail to spay or neuter their pets, and still don’t seem to be able to keep their pet for its entire natural life. Dogs and cats who are not well socialized and get thrown into the shelter environment have the most difficult time.

Please consider helping us to continue helping the shelter on their road to this success. We need to have a strong foster network so we are able to take dogs when they can’t stay at the shelter any longer. We need to help them have enough space for the stray dogs as they come in. We need your help!

About a week and a half ago I pulled into my driveway and saw a cat dive under our bus and crawl up into the underside. I know all the neighborhood cats and had never seen this silver tabby before. I knew I was going to need to set the trap right away so she couldn’t take up residence in the bottom of the bus.

I set the trap a few minutes later but the kitty never went in. Later that night I saw her run from under the bus over to the side of my house. I tried different kinds of food but she never did go in to the trap. In retrospect, I imagine the kitty had been recently trapped and dumped at my house by someone who knew I was involved in rescue.  Cats have to be really hungry to go into a trap after being recently trapped.

I decided to try developing a routine of feeding the kitty on my porch until she was coming routinely, and then set the trap again on my porch. Every day I put food out and within half an hour it was gone, yet I never saw the kitty come around. I think she must have been watching me from somewhere nearby.

Yesterday, I came home and unloaded my car and went in the house. A few minutes later I heard some men talking in front of my house and one of them was walking toward my door. I went out to see what was going on, and the man said “I think I just hit your cat.”  Sure enough, he had hit the little silver tabby and she was laying on my lawn. I approached her, but she only moved for about 30 more seconds, then she was gone. She had significant damage to her head and face.

I feel so sad for this poor little kitty who was discarded by someone and lived her life scared and slinking from place to place looking for safety and food. Her life didn’t end much better than how it began. I decided to have her cremated so we can put her remains up at the ranch. Next Spring we’ll be working on our tribute garden and want to have an area for Indigo animals. At least her remains will be in a safe and beautiful place.

She needed to have a free spirited name, so we named her Muriah, for the wind.  While I was driving her body up to the Bethany Family Pet Clinic, I was thinking about the upcoming auction for the Tom and Mom Cat Special, scheduled for a week from this Saturday on November 13th. The auction will be raising money to help subsidize cat spays during the program, so it’s really important that the event raise lots of money.

I suddenly realized I could ask Dr Mark whether he might donate something to the event. It was better than I ever imagined. Not only did Dr Mark donate something to the TAMCS, he donated a really great item! He donated a canine or feline dental, including blood work, IV fluids, and a 12 step cleaning, up to $400 value. Wow! I left the clinic feeling that maybe Muriah’s death had ended up resulting in something good for other cats. Thank you so much, Dr Mark!

If I hadn’t decided to have her cremated, I wouldn’t have been going to the clinic where I thought to ask Dr Mark for a contribution to the auction. As many as 120 cats belonging to low income households will be spayed because of that contribution. And that really means something.

Rest in Peace little Muriah, and thank you for your wonderful gift to other cats.

On Saturday, November 13th, the Sons of Armageddon Motorcycle Club is hosting it’s First Annual Benefit for Indigo Rescue. What an awesome group of guys (and gals)!  The event, being held at Wrenegades, will feature live music, and a great auction with a pair of diamond earrings (teaser ;o ).

Here’s a flyer for the event. We hope to see you all there!

That’s three broken dogs in three weeks. Can a full moon last that long? This time it’s a young dog, not a puppy like the last two. She’s also broken in a different place. This little Terrier mix has a broken rear leg and pelvis. She also has road rash, so we know she was hit by a car. That’s all we know though. Oh, and she’s super sweet and constantly flops her tail when you talk to her…